Esther 4:1-2 “When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. (2) He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.”
If governments implement laws that are designed to persecute Christians for their beliefs, then another avenue that may be available to believers is to publicly protest those laws. Obviously Christians can only protest if the nations in which they live allow such activities, for if public protests are deemed illegal in the societies in which they live then believers would be transgressing a nations laws if they were to protest. The banning of public protests is not a law that contradicts God’s laws and so God would not condone His saints transgressing in this area. The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is that the Babylonian government had issued an edict that all Jews living in the empire were to be executed on a certain date. When Mordecai the Jew was made aware of the edict he went into the city square in front of the king’s palace to protest that law. Unlike modern day protests however where placards are used, Mordecai protested in sackcloth and ashes, thus combining his protest with his petition to the Lord for His intervention. Mordecai wasn’t the only Jew to publicly protest in this manner however, for the scriptures tell us that in every province in the Babylonian Empire that many of the Jews lay in sackcloth and ashes, and although not all the Jews protested in this same manner, all of them did fast and pray to the Lord to intervene on their behalf (Esther 4:3). We know that Mordecai acted within the law in the manner that he protested because he was allowed to protest in the city square for a number of days. Had Mordecai been acting contrary to the Babylonian laws for public protest he would have been arrested the first day and that would have brought his protest to an abrupt end. If you read the account in scripture you will see that his protest was effective in that it was widely reported on in the city, and God used it as the catalyst for certain actions to be implemented that would not only change the law but also punish those who sought to destroy the Jews. And so the outcome of this event was that the law was repealed and the perpetrators of the law were themselves executed and many gentiles converted to Judaism as a result. Very clearly however, we see from this example that if Christians are going to succeed in any protest actions then they must combine it with prayer and fasting before the Lord, for it is really only the Lord who is able to reverse any unjust laws or wrongful prosecutions. A word of caution needs to be noted however, for although Christians can peacefully protest when a nation’s laws permit them to do so, they should not participate in protests that could become violent and turn into riots, for God tells His saints not to follow a crowd to do evil (Exodus 23:2).
Michael E.B. Maher
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